Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Thunder and lightning. Enter Casca and Cicero. CICERO
Good even, Casca. Brought you Caesar home?
Why are you breathless? And why stare you so? CASCA
Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth
Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,
I have seen tempests when the scolding winds 5
Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
Th’ ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam
To be exalted with the threat’ning clouds;
But never till tonight, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire. 10
Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
Incenses them to send destruction. | Cicero runs into Casca on the street that night. Casca's a little shaken up. Though he's seen his fair share of bad nights, he says the sky dropping hot fire is definitely a first. Casca thinks maybe there's a civil war in heaven, or maybe the gods are raining down fury because the world has displeased them. |
CICERO
Why, saw you anything more wonderful? CASCA
A common slave (you know him well by sight) 15
Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
Like twenty torches joined; and yet his hand,
Not sensible of fire, remained unscorched.
Besides (I ha’ not since put up my sword),
Against the Capitol I met a lion, 20
Who glazed upon me and went surly by
Without annoying me. And there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women,
Transformèd with their fear, who swore they saw
Men all in fire walk up and down the streets. 25
And yesterday the bird of night did sit
Even at noonday upon the marketplace,
Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say
“These are their reasons, they are natural,” 30
For I believe they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon. | This would all be crazy talk except that Casca's seen worse than bad weather tonight. A slave boy's hand was lit on fire by a torch, and yet it didn't burn. Then there was a surly lion at the Capitol. Also a bunch of women were terrified by a vision they swore they saw of men walking the streets covered in flames. Casca reports the strangest thing of all: a nighttime bird was in the market, during the daytime! Since it doesn't get any crazier than that, it's clear all these things are bad omens. (Seriously, a nighttime bird.) |
CICERO
Indeed, it is a strange-disposèd time.
But men may construe things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves. 35
Comes Caesar to the Capitol tomorrow? CASCA
He doth, for he did bid Antonius
Send word to you he would be there tomorrow. CICERO
Good night then, Casca. This disturbèd sky
Is not to walk in. 40 CASCA Farewell, Cicero. Cicero exits. | Cicero thinks they should hold off on crazy interpretations of the flaming men, lions, and various insomniac birds. He says people basically interpret things to mean whatever they want them to mean. After confirming that Caesar will be at the Capitol tomorrow, Cicero leaves. |
Enter Cassius. CASSIUS
Who’s there? CASCA A Roman. CASSIUS Casca, by your voice. CASCA
Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this! 45 CASSIUS
A very pleasing night to honest men. CASCA
Who ever knew the heavens menace so? CASSIUS
Those that have known the Earth so full of faults.
For my part, I have walked about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perilous night, 50
And thus unbracèd, Casca, as you see,
Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone;
And when the cross blue lightning seemed to open
The breast of heaven, I did present myself
Even in the aim and very flash of it. 55 CASCA
But wherefore did you so much tempt the heavens?
It is the part of men to fear and tremble
When the most mighty gods by tokens send
Such dreadful heralds to astonish us. | Casca then runs into Cassius, who has been presenting himself to the heavens to be struck by lightning. A tad concerned by this behavior, Casca asks Cassius if maybe he should have trembled at the gods' warning instead of going out for a lightning tan. |
CASSIUS
You are dull, Casca, and those sparks of life 60
That should be in a Roman you do want,
Or else you use not. You look pale, and gaze,
And put on fear, and cast yourself in wonder,
To see the strange impatience of the heavens.
But if you would consider the true cause 65
Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts,
Why birds and beasts from quality and kind,
Why old men, fools, and children calculate,
Why all these things change from their ordinance,
Their natures, and preformèd faculties, 70
To monstrous quality—why, you shall find
That heaven hath infused them with these spirits
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Unto some monstrous state.
Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man 75
Most like this dreadful night,
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars
As doth the lion in the Capitol;
A man no mightier than thyself or me
In personal action, yet prodigious grown, 80
And fearful, as these strange eruptions are. | Cassius thinks Casca is an idiot. Obviously the heavens are making the world disco-fabulous to signal their serious displeasure with the state of affairs in Rome, where a certain someone, though he is no better than Cassius, has grown too powerful for his own good. |
CASCA
’Tis Caesar that you mean, is it not, Cassius? CASSIUS
Let it be who it is. For Romans now
Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors.
But, woe the while, our fathers’ minds are dead, 85
And we are governed with our mothers’ spirits.
Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish. | Casca, dumb as socks, asks whether Cassius is talking about Julius Caesar. A true politician, Cassius does the old "maybe, maybe not." |
CASCA
Indeed, they say the Senators tomorrow
Mean to establish Caesar as a king,
And he shall wear his crown by sea and land 90
In every place save here in Italy. | Either way, Casca says the Romans are acting like cowards by doing nothing to stop the tyranny, which will only get worse. Casca has heard that tomorrow the senators will crown Caesar king, and that he plans to wear his crown everywhere but Italy. |
CASSIUS
I know where I will wear this dagger then;
Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius.
Therein, you gods, you make the weak most strong;
Therein, you gods, you tyrants do defeat. 95
Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself. 100
If I know this, know all the world besides,
That part of tyranny that I do bear
I can shake off at pleasure. Thunder still. | Cassius points out where he'll wear his dagger, and basically blabs his plan to murder Caesar. |
CASCA So can I.
So every bondman in his own hand bears 105
The power to cancel his captivity. CASSIUS
And why should Caesar be a tyrant, then?
Poor man, I know he would not be a wolf
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep;
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds. 110
Those that with haste will make a mighty fire
Begin it with weak straws. What trash is Rome,
What rubbish, and what offal when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate
So vile a thing as Caesar! But, O grief, 115
Where hast thou led me? I perhaps speak this
Before a willing bondman; then, I know
My answer must be made. But I am armed,
And dangers are to me indifferent. | When the thunder stops (drama!), Cassius contends that Caesar is only a tyrant because people are stupid and beg to be taken advantage of. Cassius pretends to be surprised about revealing so much in front of Casca, who he suggests might like being Caesar's stupid stooge. |
CASCA
You speak to Casca, and to such a man 120
That is no fleering telltale. Hold. My hand.
They shake hands.
Be factious for redress of all these griefs,
And I will set this foot of mine as far
As who goes farthest. CASSIUS There’s a bargain made. 125
Now know you, Casca, I have moved already
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans
To undergo with me an enterprise
Of honorable-dangerous consequence.
And I do know by this they stay for me 130
In Pompey’s Porch. For now, this fearful night,
There is no stir or walking in the streets;
And the complexion of the element
In favor ’s like the work we have in hand,
Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible. 135 | Casca takes the bait and pledges not to tattle. More important, he pledges to join in on the conspiracy to kill Caesar. Conveniently, there's a meeting of all the conspirators starting right now at the old theater, Pompey's Porch. They're waiting for Cassius. |
Enter Cinna. CASCA
Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste. CASSIUS
’Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait.
He is a friend.—Cinna, where haste you so? CINNA
To find out you. Who’s that? Metellus Cimber? CASSIUS
No, it is Casca, one incorporate 140
To our attempts. Am I not stayed for, Cinna? CINNA
I am glad on ’t. What a fearful night is this!
There’s two or three of us have seen strange sights. CASSIUS Am I not stayed for? Tell me. CINNA
Yes, you are. O Cassius, if you could 145
But win the noble Brutus to our party— | Cinna, another conspirator, happens to be on his way to that same secret meeting, and they all stop for a chat. Cinna mentions it would be really nice if Brutus was also interested in killing his friend, Caesar. |
CASSIUS, handing him papers
Be you content. Good Cinna, take this paper,
And look you lay it in the Praetor’s chair,
Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this
In at his window; set this up with wax 150
Upon old Brutus’ statue. All this done,
Repair to Pompey’s Porch, where you shall find us.
Is Decius Brutus and Trebonius there? CINNA
All but Metellus Cimber, and he’s gone
To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie 155
And so bestow these papers as you bade me. | To further this goal, Cassius sends Cinna on an errand to plant some letters Cassius has written in various places where Brutus will find them. Cassius has impersonated other Romans in the letters, all of which praise Brutus and suggest that somebody should really off Caesar for Rome's sake. |
CASSIUS
That done, repair to Pompey’s Theater. Cinna exits. Come, Casca, you and I will yet ere day
See Brutus at his house. Three parts of him
Is ours already, and the man entire 160
Upon the next encounter yields him ours. | Cassius confides to Casca that they'll have Brutus on their side in no time. |
CASCA
O, he sits high in all the people’s hearts,
And that which would appear offense in us
His countenance, like richest alchemy,
Will change to virtue and to worthiness. 165 | Casca is glad, as Brutus is well regarded and will make all the nasty things they do seem virtuous and worthy. |
CASSIUS
Him and his worth and our great need of him
You have right well conceited. Let us go,
For it is after midnight, and ere day
We will awake him and be sure of him. They exit. | Cassius agrees they really do need Brutus, and by morning they'll have confirmation on whether or not he'll join them. |